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Wealth Taxes and Medicare for All Are Popular – but Democrats Are Worried They Could Backfire

BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters

By Michael Rainey

July 22, 2019

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Polls show that some of the Democratic Party’s most progressive policy proposals – including Medicare for All, free college tuition and a new tax on wealthy households – are broadly popular with American voters. But according to a report from Jim Tankersley and Ben Casselman of The New York Times, many Democratic voters are worried that these proposals could turn into political liabilities in the 2020 election.

The fear, voters told Tankersley and Casselman, is that in the current polarized political environment, opponents of those policies will succeed in portraying them as too far to the left, alienating moderate voters and boosting the chances of re-election for President Trump.

The numbers: Support for the policies is pretty clear. In a new poll, the Times found that 66% of voters supported a 2% tax on households with a net worth over $50 million, a proposal that has been floated by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Even a majority of Republicans expressed their support for this idea.

Medicare for All and free college tuition also received majority support – 58% and 59% respectively – though neither proposal is backed by a majority of Republicans.

The reasons why: Some poll respondents said it was becoming increasingly obvious to voters that at a time of rising economic inequality, the country’s wealthiest citizens need to pay higher taxes. More cynically, Republican strategists said Americans approve of tax-the-rich proposals because they see it is as something of a free lunch, gaining benefits paid for by someone else.

What’s next: Democratic voters seem torn about their priorities. Many are attracted to progressive proposals, but that hasn’t given liberal stalwarts like Warren an advantage over frontrunner Joe Biden. The reason, Tankersley and Casselman say, is that so many Democrats are worried about successful attacks from the right, which could cost them the White House next year.

“I would like someone more radical, but because the situation is so dire, I think Joe [Biden] is our safest bet to beat Trump,” one Florida Democrat said. “I used to think that policy was more important, but because of the stinging defeat that we had, I don’t trust that anymore.”